Title:
Multi-Source Multi-Path HTTP (mHTTP): A Proposal

Abstract: Today, most devices have multiple network interfaces. Coupled with
wide-spread replication of popular content at multiple locations, this provides
substantial path diversity in the Internet. We propose Multi-source Multipath
HTTP, mHTTP, which takes advantage of all existing types of path diversity in
the Internet. mHTTP needs only client-side but not server-side or network
modifications as it is a receiver-oriented mechanism. Moreover, the
modifications are restricted to the socket interface. Thus, no changes are
needed to the applications or to the kernel.
As mHTTP relies on HTTP range requests, it is specific to HTTP which accounts
for more than 60% of the Internet traffic. We implement mHTTP and study its
performance by conducting measurements over a testbed and in the wild. Our
results show that mHTTP indeed takes advantage of all types of path diversity
in the Internet, and that it is a viable alternative to Multipath TCP for HTTP
traffic. mHTTP decreases download times for large objects up to 50%, whereas it
does no harm to small object downloads.